How To Force Yourself To Start A Business
The $100 MBA Show
Omar Zinhome tackles the common mental barriers preventing people from starting a business, revealing that the real issue isn't time, money,
Key takeaways
- The core reason people don't start businesses is not external barriers but internal excuses they've normalized over time.
- You can't have both excuses and results—choosing one means abandoning the other.
Main topics
- Overcoming procrastination and self-sabotage
- Reframing mindset around 'forcing' oneself to act
Notable quotes
You can have excuses or you can have results. You just can't have both.
Time isn't missing—it was always there. You just chose to spend it elsewhere.
Conclusion
To finally start a business, stop asking 'how can I force myself?' and instead ask 'do I actually want
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) If you want to start a business, but you still haven't, I'm going to tell you why. Plain and simple. And here it is. It's your excuses. That's it. That's the whole answer. But don't worry, I got your back. Despite your excuses, I'm going to help you get started. But there's a phrase I want you to write down. I want you to remember this every single day. And that is, you can have excuses or you can have results. You just can't have both. Today... I'm going to help you dismantle every single excuse that's holding you back. And I'm going to give you a way to make your first sale so you can start getting some momentum. Not in a month. I'm talking about this week. All right. We're going to reframe what it means to force yourself so you don't feel like you need to force yourself again. Because here's a confession I want to make up front. I never had to force myself to start a business. Not once. And I'll explain why. And it has to do the way you reframe this whole thing in your head. Let's go. Welcome back to the $100 MBA show. I'm your host, Omar Zinhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business. Speaker 1 (1:18) Hey, if this show has helped you in any way, leave me a quick review wherever you listen to podcasts. This helps us reach even more people who need the same no-fluff practical business advice. It literally takes a few seconds, but it makes a huge difference. Thanks for being a part of our journey to help others on their journey. Before anything else, there is an important question you need to ask yourself. By the way, this is the whole episode right here, okay? If you get this, you have won, all right? One honest question, and here it is. You need to ask yourself, do you actually want to start a business? Very important question you need to answer honestly. Do you actually want to start a business? Not does it sound interesting, not would you like the outcome of a business. Do you actually want to do it? Do you actually want to go through the steps? This question is important because a lot of people want what a business will get them, but they don't want to actually go through building one. If your answer is no, you don't want to start a business, not actually what you want to do, that's completely fine. It's okay. Be great at something else in your life. Find your fulfillment somewhere else and you are going to be a happy camper. Okay, this episode ends here for you. The answer to that question is no. But if the answer is yes, let's keep moving. So if you answered yes, yes, I actually want to start a business. The next question you need to ask is what is actually stopping you? All right. You need to write it down. This is important. This is your life. Okay. Stop pretending that this is something that is not important to you or is insignificant. This is the trajectory of the rest of your waking days, okay? You need to make sure that you take this seriously. So write down your answers on a piece of paper or in your phone, okay? Now, we're going to answer this question very, very carefully. And we're going to be very, very detailed with what's actually stopping us from starting a business. And this is when you're going to start writing all the reasons why you're not... there yet? Why haven't you started yet? Why haven't you made any kind of progress? Write it down. Be honest. Now, everybody's going to have a different list, but I'm going to share with you the top three excuses that I have seen in my 20 years of entrepreneurship. I've been answering this question and helping people with this for decades, okay? So here are the top three. Excuse number one, I don't have the time, okay? What are you doing with your time right now? We all have 24 hours in the day. That's what's great about time. It's the ultimate equalizer. Warren Buffett has 24 hours in a day. You know, all the entrepreneurs you look up to, whether it's Jeff Bezos or Sarah Blakely or Oprah Winfrey, 24 hours in a day. They don't get extra time. Okay. I have 24 hours in a day. You have 24 hours in a day. So right now, how are you spending this time? How are you spending every hour of the day? What are you doing? Look at your calendar. If you follow a calendar, if you don't look at what you did yesterday, walk through each hour. What were you doing? Were you watching TV? Were you working out in the gym? Whatever it was, were you at work? Were you doing the dishes? Were you going for a walk? Were you playing video games? Whatever it is, write it down. You have to dissect your life so that you can actually change it. Once you've written down what you did, ask yourself the next question. Do you want to keep doing those things more than you want to start a business? Told you we're going to get honest. Do you want to play video games more than you want to start a business? Do you want to go out with friends or have drinks after work more than you want to start a business? Do you want to go to the movies? Nothing wrong with the movies, but do you want to go to the movies more than you want to start a business? You have to ask those questions because you have time. You just choose to spend that time in some other way. Now, listen, I know that you have obligations. I had obligations when I was starting. I had a full-time job. I was an educator. You know, I had bills to pay. I had responsibilities, all that stuff. But if I was honest with myself, there was some downtime. There was some time after work. There was time on the weekends. There was time on holidays that I was doing other things. Before I started a business, I wasn't doing business. I was doing something else. So if the answer is I rather do those other things than start a business, if that's the honest answer, then you don't want to start a business. This is the proof you don't want to start a business because if you want to start a business, you'd want it more than the other things. What you want is comfort. What you want is a bit of downtime. And that's fine. Just be honest. I'm not talking down on anybody that says this. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing. I'm just saying that you just need to recognize, have self-awareness. Self-awareness is one of the number one tools you can have as an entrepreneur. It's understanding what you can and cannot do, what you want and what you don't want. So if you don't want to do business over those things, just be honest so that you know where you stand. But if the answer is no, right, you just found your hours. If you say, no, I do want to start a business instead of the other things I wrote down. then those are the hours you need to use. Those are the things that you're going to take those hours from those things that you don't prefer to do over starting a business. They weren't missing. They were always there. Excuse number two, I don't have the money. Do you actually need money to start? Ask yourself that question. And the answer is no. I've started all my businesses from the beginning of time over the last 20 years with no startup capital, with no outside funding. I might have used some of my savings over time. Maybe I used some of my initial revenue, but I started with nothing. If you have a laptop, and honestly, if you just have a phone, you can start. Starting a business with $0 is totally possible. It's actually quite common now in 2026. And like I mentioned, every single one of my businesses started with $0. Money isn't the barrier. It's the most socially acceptable excuse in my experience is like, I don't have money. I can't afford it.